Wednesday, August 29, 2012

GOP Weather Report

The Grand Old (Republican) Party is meeting this week in Tampa, Florida, to officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as their 2012 presidential ticket.  They are also promulgating their platform of promises with planks to please everyone.

I would so love this ticket and this platform if they were both fiscally conservative and socially compassionate. I cannot support a political party that fails to support women, people of color, people with health problems, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, and most of all--children in need of superior education.

So let me share with you this hurricane Isaac weather report that gives me comfort while they babble on.  (And don't miss the caption below!)


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bio for a Wannabe Writer

Phoenix Writers' Club invites its member/authors to post a writer's biography or writing exemplar or both on its website.  I've spent some time today putting together a page to be posted.  That I actually have some references to offer amazes me.

Let it also inspire me to get busy to write more. 


*     *     *
August 24th Update

My artful effort has been posted on PWC's website (link above).  It lost something in the formatting; I will have to learn the ins and outs of prepping material for website publication.

As for inspiration, yesterday I passed the 10,000 word mark on my newest and most enjoyable project.  No bragging though; I took today off. 

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Butt in Chair with Fun

Author Julie Smith, creator of San Francisco attorney Rebecca Schwartz and New Orleans PI Talba Wallis, also offers teaching tools and even coaching for budding authors.  I bought a set of Julie Smith's teaching CDs about three years ago and got busy with writing lessons from a pro. They were worth every penny by the way.  

Up front Julie points out that a writer must keep his or her butt in the chair to succeed.  I've written this before in Diverse Mind.  It may be the kiss of death to mention it again, but keeping my butt in the chair seems to be my biggest challenge.

I have two novels in progress at this time, and the second one was started yesterday due to boredom with the first.  Yesterday's beginning was auspicious by comparison.  I was able to rattle my way through 3,000 words of text that practically wrote itself.  Novel 1 is the one I have to get out of my gut.  It's been nagging at me for years.  It also writes itself at times but candidly it is not much fun.  Novel 2 started with a few key words and a brief plot note.  I started writing and (ta da!) it is fun! I can't imagine it getting dull.  

So, once again, butt is in chair.  Here's to another 3,000 words today.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Google+ Dilemma

I've had this blog for quite a while. Sometimes I'm more faithful at blogging; sometimes it lies fallow.  I admire  Google's ability to help people create and interact through (mostly) user friendly applications, and I try to Google up with new technology.  I have an Android phone for instance, and this blog, and--okay here it comes--a Google+ account.

  
Here's my problem.  I can't figure out how to connect them up.  My Google+ account can't see my Blogger account and my phone can't connect with either of them.

  
Help.  I need a tech savvy teenager.  Any volunteers?  Of any age?   

Friday, August 10, 2012

Outing the B in LGBT

Society has just about got it about lesbians and gays: normal people with the same goods and bads as the rest of the human race.  They are just attracted to the same sex rather than the opposite sex.  Most know right from wrong.  Many make good life choices and others get themselves into trouble with poor choices.  Society is recognizing the L and G of LGBT as people deserving of recognition and respect as well as comparable rights and responsibilities. 

Now society is beginning to wrestle with acceptance of transgender people, the T in LGBT.  We are learning that some children are born with the physical attributes of one gender, but the internal sensation of being the opposite gender.  Children are now sometimes recognized as transgender rather than 'gender confused'.  Social workers, psychologists, teachers, clergy and parents are learning how to help such a child navigate childhood as the self-identified gender.  Physical sexual reassignment is now available and is a valid choice for transgender adults.  

But the scary one is the B for bisexual.  We aren't quite there yet, but we need to be getting there.  Actress Gillian Anderson has almost accidentally outed herself as bisexual.  In an AZCentral.com article,  Ms. Anderson explains her comments to Out Magazine about prior relationships with women.  She further makes it clear that she doesn't consider herself gay [sic].

She said: ''I was talking to Out about gays and choice, and the view that you can just choose not to be gay in some way. I decided to talk about it now because someone with whom I was in a relationship a couple of decades ago - a woman - passed away about a year ago.


''I was talking about her and, in the context of the gentle conversation we were having, I thought I would say that I have had a couple of relationships with women, but that wasn't my experience because I did have a choice. I always knew I still liked boys.

''Being gay was never something that I identified with 100 per cent, because I knew that for me it wasn't the only way.''

And this is B for bisexual, the last of the sexual minorities to be dealt with, and possibly the hardest.  

We don't want to acknowledge B because to some extent or another many straights and many gays are on the B spectrum.  Rather than to acknowledge sexual attraction to both men and women, bisexuals tend to pick the end of the spectrum they feel closest to and identify as gay or straight.  There is a sadness about being coerced by society to choose one end or the other, but that's the way it has been for millennia.  Ya gotta be 'normal'.  LGB and T are sexual minorities, but they are not abnormal.

Here's hoping the world can recognize and respect all minorities.  We live in a magnificent creation with boundless diversity.  The more we can open our minds to human diversity, the richer we can grow in spirit.